The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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John 16:7-11 reads: “Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (emphasis added).

This is the third time in John’s Gospel that Jesus refers to Satan either as “the ruler of the world” or “the ruler of this world.” Jesus is preparing the disciples for his departure and the inevitable persecution of the saints to come. At the same time, Jesus tells his followers it is to their advantage that he goes away. This is because Jesus’ ascension follows his finished work of redemption – that is, his death, burial, and resurrection. Further, when Jesus sits down at the Father’s right hand, he serves as our great high priest, mediator, and intercessor. 

But it gets even better. Jesus promises to send “another Counselor” like himself. The Holy Spirit, untethered to a physical body as Jesus is in the Incarnation, will be both with and in Jesus’ followers. In many respects, we might see the Holy Spirit as the divine agent of everlasting life. Both the Father and Jesus send him, and his work is wonderfully comprehensive. 

For example, the Spirit regenerates believing sinners, making us spiritually alive. He indwells our human spirits, which now serve as the holy of holies for God’s Shekinah glory. He seals us, or places God’s mark of ownership on us. He is the Spirit of adoption, ensuring that newborn babes in Christ are welcomed into God’s family. He sanctifies us, or sets us apart and begins the lifelong process of conforming us to the image of Christ. He helps us pray. He gives us spiritual gifts to employ in service to the Lord. And he does much more. So, Jesus promises the Spirit to encourage his followers. He ensures them they are not to be left as orphans. 

At the same time, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit’s future work in the unbelieving world. In the immediate context, Jesus may be referring to unbelieving Jews in general, and to unbelieving Jewish leaders in particular. Up to now, Jesus certainly has warned the religious elite about their sins and the dire consequences of persistent unbelief (John 8:21, 24; 9:41; 15:22, 24; 19:11). In one particularly pointed statement, Jesus says, “Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). 

But taking a wider view, Jesus’ words apply to all unbelievers. Specifically, Jesus cites three ways the coming Spirit is to convict unbelievers. The Greek verb elencho occurs eighteen times in the New Testament. It may mean “to convict,” “to put to proof,” “to test,” “to lay bare, expose,” “to refute,” “to reprove, rebuke,” or “to chastise,” among other meanings.¹⁰ Primarily, however, elencho has to do with showing people their sin and calling them to repentance. As D. A. Carson notes: “In common with other New Testament usages, elencho means “to convict (the world)” in the personal sense, i.e. not arguing the case for the world’s objective guilt before God at the final Great Assize [final judgment], but shaming the world and convincing it of its own guilt, thus calling it to repentance.”

Just as Jesus has exposed the world’s evil in its rejection of him (John 15:18-25), the Spirit is to continue this work, initially through the disciples’ witness (John 15:26-27). The Spirit’s purpose is to drive people to the liberating truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus to glorify him (John 16:14). Rather than a mournful event, Jesus’ imminent departure is a glorious affair because it comes after he has completed the work he came to do through his death, burial, and resurrection. Then, seated at the Father’s right hand, Jesus and the Father send the Spirit to extend Jesus’ earthly ministry in remarkable ways the disciples cannot yet grasp.

Jesus explains that the Spirit is sent to convict the unbelieving world about sin, righteousness, and judgment. First, about sin “because they do not believe in me” (John 16:9). If people did believe in Jesus, they would embrace his truthful statements about himself, realize their guilt, and turn to him for salvation. But instead, their unbelief produces condemnation (John 3:18, 36), along with a blinding ignorance of their peril. As Gerald Borchert puts it: “The idea of sin here is not merely conceived in terms of a listing of erroneous acts but of the fundamental act of choosing another god. Such an act of rejection means that one stands above God in the way in which Adam and Eve first rebelled against God in the Garden.”

So, the Holy Spirit graciously but firmly presses the point of unbelievers’ willful rejection of the Son of God as their only remedy for sin. He seeks to confront men and women with their inescapable guilt so they will turn to Jesus and seek his mercy.

Second, the Holy Spirit convicts the unbelieving world of righteousness “because I [Jesus] am going to the Father and you will no longer see me” (John 16:10). It may seem odd at first glance that the Spirit convicts unrighteous people of their righteousness. But that’s precisely the point. Just as the prophet Isaiah tells his Judean brothers and sisters their “righteous acts” are like a soiled menstruous cloth (“polluted garment,” Isa. 64:6), the Spirit draws a sharp contrast between human righteousness and Christ’s righteousness. Human righteousness cannot pay the sin debt we owe God, nor is it sufficient to curry God’s favor. 

There is plenty of manmade righteousness in Jesus’ day, and the Lord spends considerable time exposing it for the fraud that it is. Rather than embrace Jesus as Messiah, the religious leaders seek to kill him (John 7:19). Further, there are many places in the New Testament where the world’s righteousness is shown to fall short of God’s perfect standard (Matt. 5:20; Rom. 10:3; Phil. 3:6-9; Tit. 3:5). The Spirit’s mission is to expose human righteousness for what it is – an affront to God – and thus to point people to the perfect righteousness of Christ, in which believing sinners may be clothed.

The Spirit carries on this work because Jesus is returning to the Father. One of Jesus’ most significant ministries is exposing the unbelieving world’s self-righteousness. As the light of the world, he chases darkness away wherever he goes (John 3:19-21; 7:7; 15:22, 24). But who is to continue this work when Jesus returns to the Father? The Holy Spirit, of course, primarily through the testimony of Jesus’ followers, whom the Spirit inhabits and empowers. 

One of the most common acts of self-righteousness the world offers today goes something like this:  “I believe in God and do my best to live a good life. I love my spouse and my children. I work hard. I pay my taxes. I go to church and even put some of my hard-earned money in the offering plate. I give to charitable causes. I do my civic duty. I’m a good neighbor. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but on balance, I think the good Lord would agree that I’m all right.”

To which the Holy Spirit whispers forcefully, “No! You’re not all right. You’re pretentious. You’re self-righteous. You’re deceived. And you’re in grave danger.” 

Which leads to the third way the Holy Spirit convicts the unbelieving world. He convicts the world of judgment, “because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:11). The NIV renders it, “because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” The world’s sense of judgment is wrong because the world itself is sinful and fallen. 

Further, the world’s morally perverse judgment hinges on the one who is a liar from the beginning. If Satan stands condemned by the triumph of the cross, “the false judgment of those who follow in his train is doubly exposed,” according to D.A. Carson. “The need for conviction of this false judgment is all the more urgent; the world is condemned already and in desperate need to learn of its plight.”

Jesus’ opponents condemn him as a Sabbath breaker, a false prophet, and a satanically empowered miracle worker. But the Holy Spirit reveals that it is the evil one who stands condemned at Jesus’ glorification. This judgment, in turn, condemns the unbelieving world, for unbelievers have the devil as their father (John 8:44). 

So, Satan stands condemned through the victorious work of Christ and the convincing testimony of the Holy Spirit. No doubt, Satan is severely diminished today. He has been cast out of heaven, and now he’s confined to ruling the unseen realm and prowling the earth (1 Pet. 5:8). While there is a significant gap between the time of Satan’s condemnation and his formal sentencing, the day is coming when the ruler of this world is cast into the lake of fire (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10). 

The Holy Spirit reveals the truth that Satan’s condemnation is an accomplished fact. The evil one’s punishment in hell is certain. And for those who side with him and his failed kingdom, they, too, face an eternity apart from the Prince of Peace. Instead, they suffer forever with the prince of this world. As Colin Kruse writes, “The prince of this world, the distorter of true judgment, stands condemned, and the role of the Counsellor will be to prove wrong those of the world who likewise distort true judgment, particularly in relation to Jesus.”

Just as Jesus promises to rescue believing sinners from the domain of darkness, the Holy Spirit confirms this gracious work. For unbelievers to be redeemed, the Holy Spirit must convict them of the sin of unbelief, the futility of self-righteousness, and the perilous future condemnation they share with the prince of this world. The purpose of the Spirit’s convicting work is to shake unbelievers from their comfortable stupor. 

Further, it is to confront them with the inescapable truth that faith in Jesus alone brings forgiveness of sin, transfers Christ’s perfect righteousness to their account, and rescues them from an eternity in outer darkness, where the ruler of this world doesn’t just stand condemned, but is actually damned. John’s visions, captured in the Book of Revelation, portray not only the great power of evil and its seductive ways (Rev. 12:3-4; 13:1-18; 17:1-14), but its clear and final defeat (Rev. 14:17-20; 19:11-21; 20:7-10). 

Before moving on, we should note that the apostle John addresses the subject of Satan as the ruler of this world in the conclusion of his first epistle:

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one ​— ​that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:18-20, emphasis added).

John contrasts the security of believers with the perilous state of everyone else. The individual “who has been born of God” – brought from spiritual death into spiritual life through the finished work of Christ and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit – does not continue in habitual sinful practices. That’s because “the one who is born of God” (a unique reference to Jesus; see Chapter 9) keeps him from returning to the evil one’s domain of darkness. 

This doesn’t mean Christians are exempt from temptation, or even from satanic and demonic attacks. However, the evil one and his minions operate under the sovereignty of God. Satan could not touch Job without God’s permission (Job 1:11-12; 2:3-6).

Ancient Judaism recognized that Satan needed God’s consent to test God’s people, and that God rejected Satan’s accusations against God’s own people. As Craig Keener notes: “Judaism acknowledged that all the nations except themselves were under the dominion of Satan and his angels. The source of this idea is not hard to fathom; nearly all Gentiles worshiped idols, and most also practiced sexual immorality and other sins.”

The difference between true believers and everyone else is that the former belong to God, while the latter are under the control of – literally “lie in” – the evil one. John’s use of “the world” represents human society under the power of Satan and at war with God and his people. 

We should grasp a subtle distinction in this passage. Believers are of God, born into his kingdom and adopted as his children. Meanwhile, unbelievers are in the evil one – that is, in his grip and under his control. There are only two possible states of existence. Every person either is of God or under the sway of the evil one. There is no middle ground. 

As John Stott notes, “It is not pictured as struggling vigorously to be free but as quietly lying, perhaps even unconsciously asleep, in the embrace of Satan. The evil one does not ‘touch’ the Christian, but the world is helplessly in his grasp.”

Next: The god of this age